Buy/stream: https://kompakt.fm/releases/change_this_pain_for_ecstasy_digital_single

The formidable Rex The Dog returns with his first single for Kompakt in three years, “Change This Pain For Ecstasy”, a slow-burning disco-glitter stomp that’s charged with analogue energy. Pushing his self-built modular hardware set-up to its limits, “Change This Pain For Ecstasy” is taut and thrilling, stripped-back and pulsating, with sweeping chords shimmering through a classic Moroder arpeggio, as a delirious voice sings out a psychedelic raver’s plaint for liberation, pleading for you to "take away my sorrow and this pain”. Deeply emotional, it’s also a masterwork in tension and release, dizzy with snare-rush peaks, and dark, humid valleys where Rex is bound to the patchbay.

On the flipside, Rex gives us “Moto”, which tickles your ear with cymatic phenomena, its gentle vibrations building, beautifully, into a monster-piece of stealth techno. Rex’s DIY synths work overtime as he chases patterns and phases through circuitry, wilding the tones until they erupt into a spray of pointillist pizzicato. The sounds here crackle and corrode, the textures so tantalising, so sensual, you can almost grab hold of them with your hands. It’s great to have Rex The Dog back, making livewire, yet deeply human techno, alive and bursting with electricity.

Change This Pain For Ecstasy

Rex The Dog - Change This Pain For Ecstasy

Touch me (Trance Wax Remix) [Full Track]

Rui Da Silva - Touch Me ft. BICEP (Glue Cover)

Pullucloser

To celebrate its 25th anniversary, Defected Records presents a series of extra special collaborative releases Together, integrating talent from the label’s storied past and the stars of its future as Candi Staton’s seminal classic ‘Halleliujah Anyway’ receives two new remixes from Larse and Jnr SA. An international icon of dance music, American singer-songwriter Candi Staton first released ‘Hallelujah Anyway’ in the early 2000s, with the gospel anthem rapidly becoming a dancefloor must-have thanks to remixes from revered house artists like Moplen, Dr Packer, David Penn, Ashley Beedle and the late Frankie Knuckles alongside Eric Kupper. The record continues to inspire dancefloors today, now receiving an update from acclaimed DJ, producer and longstanding friend of Defected, Larse. Hailing from Germany, Larse captured the attention of house heads globally with his 2012 remix of this record, a landmark release for Defected that established the producer as an international tour de force; his new version of ‘Hallelujah Anyway’ again enriches the innate spirituality of Candi Staton’s soulful music, melding with his signature groove for an unforgettable outing of gospel house. Also putting his unique stamp on the record, the influential Jnr SA has worked with major players of South Africa’s vibrant Afro house scene; his take on ‘Hallelujah Anyway’ brings with it a reverence for his formative years in the church, combined with an electronic knowledge well beyond his years.

Cant help but to worry

Jim

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